Ransom! (1956)

Robert Keith: Chief Jim Backett

Photos 

Quotes 

• Police Chief Jim Backett : You could pay the ransom, and get your boy back, or you could not pay and not get him back.

  Charlie Telfer : Or you could refuse to pay, and lose. Or you could refuse to pay, and you still get him back. You see, Stannard, the odds are still 2 to 1 in your favor.

  David G. Stannard : You mean my paying the ransom won't affect the odds of my getting him back at all? Then why pay? Why do people pay?

  Police Chief Jim Backett : It'd be easier for police if nobody did.

  David G. Stannard : What do you mean?

  Charlie Telfer : No ransom, no kidnapping racket, no profit margin.

• Chief Jim Backett : You've seen it yourself. The biggest man in the country openly bartering with kidnappers, and the voting public wouldn't have it any other way, even though the kid were already dead from the start.

• Chief Jim Backett : Me? How long do you that I'd keep my job in this community if I went around doing what I thought was right?